Lyric Opera 2021-2022 Issue 4 Florencia en el Amazonas

Lyric Opera of Chicago | 32 In Florencia , the music is telling us that Arcadio and Rosalba actually want to be together. We hear them saying, ‘Goodbye, I don’t want to be with you’ while the music is saying, ‘I love you.’ That’s an ‘A-ha!’ moment.” The drama of Florencia also is intriguing in its mysterious ending. “The Latin American literary tradition includes several books that end like this—with a question mark,” says Puente Catán. This impression is enforced in the score’s final moments; the music doesn’t end with the root (the strongest note in any chord), but instead emphasizes the fifth note of the scale—the dominant— which lends an uncentered, unsettled feeling to the harmony. “That’s what makes it inconclusive, and I feel it when I hear the final timpani. Daniel wanted it this way so that everyone in the audience could create their own ending. For me, it’s all about Florencia’s energy becoming part of nature.” Florencia ’s sound world connects with Catán’s trip down the Amazon at the time he was composing the opera. Puente Catán recalls that he retained a vivid memory of “the early hours of the day, with the sun coming out and all those birds and insects waking up. I think you can hear that a lot in Florencia in the flutes, clarinets, and oboes. There’s also an interlude in which the sun comes up and you hear the chirpy sounds of birds.” Catán’s operas have caused critics to cite certain musical influences (one Florencia review mentioned everyone from Puccini and Strauss to Ravel, Debussy, Stravinsky, and John Williams). Puente Catán accepts the fact that “some critics find it impossible to say a composer has his own style. As the years pass and Daniel’s works continue to be played, everyone knows now that when you hear the first five chords of Florencia , this is Daniel Catán! Yes, he was influenced by many composers—Strauss, Debussy, Berg, Stravinsky—but composers aren’t born from nothing. They all have to have some kind of influence. It’s interesting in Daniel’s case: he has clear German and French influences and then Latin American as well. You put these elements together and this is what you get!” Florencia ’s orchestral colors make a mesmerizing impact. Puente Catán especially loves the final notes of the opera, scored for violin, piano, harp, and timpani. “Daniel’s combination of timbres is very particular. His use of harp, steel drum, and marimba, which he incorporates into the fabric of the strings, woodwinds, and brass, is amazing.” The Florencia score marvelously matches strikingly distinctive sounds with dramatically astute use of specific rhythms. “In the storm music, for example, there’s a combination of rhythms—groups of nine notes with a lot of movement in the orchestra because the boat is sinking. Then, we have this ‘chak-a-chak-a-chak-a:’ the boat engines! Suddenly, the music moves into a ¾ tempo and slows down, and it’s like the sun interrupts the storm as Florencia, Rosalba, and Paula sing about their loved ones. It’s a return to life, with the sound now like a cushion, a wave of strings.” Lyric is presenting a production of Florencia that Puente Catán considers eminently worthy of the piece. “[Director] Francesca Zambello put together an incredible team. The boat is quite large and lifelike, but within it there are some wonderfully intimate moments. When Rosalba and Arcadio are talking about love, they’re in a part of the boat that is almost like a little box within a much larger structure.” Puente Catán also greatly admires the lighting, and the production’s treatment of the Amazon itself. She’s grateful that “Francesca has what I would call an ‘aesthetic respect’ for the opera.” Andrea Puente Catán hopes Lyric’s performances of Florencia en el Amazonas will help to fulfill Daniel Catán’s passionate wish to “give voice to Hispanic artists in America. This was so important to Daniel. It can encompass anything, whether it be art, dance, literature, or music.” She hopes, too, that Florencia will leave the audience with a special feeling not only for the opera itself, “but also with the belief that love is possible.” Roger Pines, former dramaturg of Lyric Opera of Chicago, writes regularly for major opera-related publications internationally and has been a panelist annually on the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts’ Opera Quiz since 2006. He currently teaches an opera repertoire course at Northwestern University’s Bienen School of Music. Florencia el el Amazonas (Houston Grand Opera) Lynn Lane